Windber superintendent outlines his vision for a new campus

October 15, 2008|By DAN DiPAOLO, Daily American 30 North Chief

WINDBER — Superintendent Rick Huffman spoke to council on Tuesday about re-inventing the long-term future of the school district using partnerships with local government, businesses and nearby communities.

“We can’t just prepare our students for a local economy anymore,” he told council during their regular meeting. “Consolidation of services. You can see that coming down the pipeline.”

Those reasons, along with dwindling enrollment numbers, were the motivation behind his vision, he said.

Essentially, the district would create a new, highly visible campus replete with community space, a new track and high school, and a renovated stadium in the area along state Route 56.

The school district would sell its 56-acre track complex, buy the current stadium land from the Windber Stadium Authority and then lease or sell the high school to local businesses.

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The new campus would be a community centerpiece and attraction for not only residents but those visiting or driving past.

The new school would also be built with vocational teaching facilities and be sized to accommodate students from nearby districts looking for those educational opportunities, he said.

“Hopefully people don’t view this as a plan, just as a point for people to start talking about,” he said.

Council responded warmly to the outline and praised Huffman for thinking long term. “If we don’t have the vision to move forward, we’re going to get gobbled up and left behind,” said member George Ledney.

Huffman’s outline was full of hypothetical specifics that would require the entire community to work together.

However, if the campus became a reality, a number of other local organizations could benefit.

The purchase of the stadium land could be split three ways among the borough, Windber Public Library and the volunteer fire department, Huffman said. Those moneys could be put in trust and used to help funding, he said. All three entities have suffered from a well-documented lack of revenue in recent years.

Additionally, the stadium complex would feature a new building that could house borough offices, a senior center and the library, he said.

The stadium itself would combine track facilities, an adjoining basketball or indoor sport building and an artificial outdoor playing surface.

The old high school could be used by businesses looking to open in Windber or by the expansion of existing facilities like the Windber Medical Center, he said.

The new medical center, if it were to become a reality, could be an east campus for the hospital and perhaps house administration or conference facilities, he said.

The overall effect would be to stabilize several local organizations, provide a growth point for enrollment and enhance the attraction of Windber to people and businesses looking to make a new home, he said.

The alternatives are dire, he said. This year the graduating class has 120 students in it, he said. On the elementary level, the district doesn’t have a single grade class size larger than 90, he said.

“In the future, 40 to 50 kids in a class is more than plausible,” he said.

Creating a school with trade classes and offering new facilities will put the district in a position to receive more state funding, more students and perhaps become the center for regionalization in northern Somerset County.